Ch. 17: Toward a New View
The SR
· Emergence of modern science has long term significance
· SR was “the real origin of both the modern world and
the modern mentality”
· SR 1540-1690: Western society began to acquire its
most distinctive traits
Scientific Thought in 1500
· “Science” came into use in the 19th century
· Before the SR, different scholars and practitioners
were involved in aspects that came together to form science
· Natural philosophy: focused on fundamental questions
about the nature of the universe, its purpose, and how it functioned
· Early 1500s: Natural philosophy based primarily on the
ideas of Aristotle, Greek philosopher
· Medieval theologians: Thomas Aquinas brought Aristotelian philosophy into harmony with Christian
doctrines
· Revised Aristotelian
view: motionless earth was fixed at the center of universe and was encompassed
by 10 separate concentric crystal spheres that revolved around it
o First 8 spheres were embedded
o Moon, sun, five known planets, the fixed stars
o 2 spheres added in the Middle Ages
o Beyond tenth sphere was Heaven, where the throne of
God was and where souls were saved
o Angels kept spheres moving in a perfect circle
· Aristotle’s cosmology made sense, but did not account
for observed motions of the srats and planets, and had no explanation for the
backward motion of planets
· Ptolemy: Greek scholar, had a solution
o Planets moved in small circles called epicycles
o Each epicycle moved in turn along a larger circle, or
a deferent
o Less elegant than Aristotle’s neat circles
o Surprisingly accurate planetary motion model
· Aristotle’s revised views dominated thinking about
physics and motion on earth
o Distinguished between world of the celestial spheres
and that of the earth – the sublunar world
o Spheres were made of perfect, incorruptible
“quintessence”, or fifth substance
o Sublunar world was made of four imperfect, changeable
elements
§ Light elements (air, fire) moved upwards
§ Heavy elements (water, earth) moved downwards
o Natural directions of motion didn’t always prevail
§ Elements were often mixed together
§ Elements could be affected by outside force
o Uniform force moved an object at a constant speed and
the object would stop as soon as the force was removed
· Aristotle’s ideas were accepted with revision for
2,000 years
o Offered an understandable, commonsense explanation for
what the eye saw
o Aristotle’s science fit with Christian doctrines
§ Home for God and a place for Christian souls
§ Put humans at the center of the universe and made them
the critical link in the “great chain of being” that stretched from God to the
lowest insect
· Aristotle’s approach to the natural world was a branch
of theology, reinforced by religious thought
Origins of the SR
· SR drew on long term European culture developments and
borrowings from Arab scholars
o Medieval University: By 13c, Permanent universities
had been established in western Europe to train the lawyers, doctors, and
church leaders society required
§ Philosophy took place alongside law, medicine, and
theology
§ Medieval philosophers developed a limited but real
independence from theologians and a sense of free inquiry
§ Pursued a body of knowledge and tried to arrange it
meaningfully with abstract theories
o Medieval Universities established new professorships
for mathematics, astronomy, and physics within their faculties
§ Prestige was low, but critical thinking was now
applied to scientific problems by a permanent community of scholars
o REN stimulated scientific progress
§ Ancient works were recovered, a lot through Arabic translations
of Greek/Latin
§ Some fields had learned Arabic commentaries too
§ REN patrons played role in funding scientific
investigations
§ REN artists’ turn toward realism and geometry
encouraged scholars to practice close observation and use math to describe
natural world
§ Printing helped circulate knowledge across Europe
quickly
o Navigational problems
§ Commission of mathematicians to perfect tables to help
seamen find their latitude
§ Development of new scientific instruments
§ Better instruments allowed for more accurate
observations, and new knowledge
o Interest in astronomy inspired by belief that changing
relationships between planets and stars influenced events on earth
§ A lot of astronomers were also astrologers who spent
time devising horoscopes
o Magic and Alchemy
§ Little to distinguish magic tricks from experiments of
scientists
§ Objects possessed hidden or “occult” qualities that
allowed them to affect other objects
§ Belief in occult qualities was not antithetical to
belief in God Adherents believed that only a diving creator could infuse the
universe with such meaningful mystery
The Copernican Hypothesis
· Desire to explain and glorify God’s handiwork was
Copernicus’s impetus
· Copernicus
o Drawn to intellectual/cultural vitality of Italian REN
o Departed for Italy, where he studied astronomy,
medicine, church law
o Noted how professional astronomers still depended on
work of Ptolemy
o Felt Ptolemy’s cumbersome and sometimes inaccurate
rules detracted from the majesty of the perfect creator
o Preferred ancient Greek idea of a heliocentric universe
o Worked on his hypothesis
o Was not a professional astronomer or university
professor
o Had limited instruments and free time for research
o Without questioning Aristotle’s beliefs or that
circular motion was divine, Copernicus theorized that the stars and planets,
including the earth, revolved around a fixed sun
o Fearing ridicule, he did not publish his work until
the year he died
· Copernican hypothesis had enormous scientific and
religious implications
o Put stars at rest
§ Nightly movement was a result of earth’s rotation
§ Destroyed main reason for believing in crystal spheres
capable of moving the stars
o Suggested a universe of staggering size
§ If the earth moved around the sun and the stars seemed
to stay still, the the universe was impossibly large
o Destroyed basic idea of Aristotelian physics that the
earthly world was different from the heavenly one
§ Where’s Heaven and God?
· Copernican hypothesis got sharp attacks from religious
leaders, especially Protestants
o Objected idea that earth moved but sun did not
o Calvin and Luther condemned Copernicus
§ “Joshua bid the sun stand still”
o Catholics were milder at first
§ Not literal interpretations
· Other events created doubts about traditional ideas
o New star appeared which contradicted idea that heavenly
spheres were unchanging and perfect
o New comet shot across sky, cutting across supposedly
impenetrable crystal spheres
Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo:
Proving Copernicus Right
· Brahe agreed with Copernicus
· Brahe
o Born into a Danish noble family
o Passionately interested in astronomy and spent nights
gazing at the sky
o Established himself as Europe’s leading astronomer
with his detailed observations of the new star
o Got generous grants from the king of Denmark
o Built the most sophisticated observatory of his day
o Brahe got new patron, HRE Rudolph II
o Built new observatory in Prague
o For emperor’s support, he pledged to create new and
improved tables of planetary motions, Rudolphine Tables
o For 20 years, Brahe meticulously observed the stars
and planets with the naked eye and compiling a lot of data
o Limited understanding and sudden death prevented him
from making much sense of his mass of data
o Believed all planets except earth revolved around the
sun and the entire group of sun and planets revolved around the earth
· Kepler
o Minor German noble family
o Damaged hands and eyesight
o Brilliant mathematician
o Inspired by belief that the universe was built on
mystical mathematical relationships and a musical harmony of the heavenly
bodies
o Examinations from Brahe’s data made Kepler conclude
that they couldn’t be explained by Ptolemy’s astronomy
o Abandoned notion of epicycles and deferents Kepler
developed three new laws of planetary motion
§ Through observation of Mars, he found orbits of
planets around sun are elliptical, not circular
§ When planet is close to sun, it moves more rapidly,
and it slows as it moves farther away
§ The time a planet takes to make its complete orbit is
precisely related to its distance from the sun
· Whereas Copernicus speculated, Kepler had mathematic
proof
· United theoretical cosmology of natural philosophy
with mathematics
· Work demolished old system of Aristotle and Ptolemy
· Third law came close to formulating idea of universal
gravitation
· Completed Rudolphine tables
· Pioneer in optics
o Explained refractions
o Invented telescope
· Great mathematicians
· Kepler was not perfect, he cast horoscopes
· Kepler accepted unorthodox Lutheranism which led to
his rejection by Lutherans and Catholics
· Complex interweaving of ideas and beliefs in emerging
science
· Galileo
o Challenging old ideas about motion
o Poor nobleman
o Fascinated with mathematics
o Experimental method
§ Rather than speculate about what might or should
happen, conduct controlled experiments to find out what actually did happen
o Law of inertia
§ Object continues in motion forever unless stopped by
some external force
§ Disproved Aristotelian physics
o Applied experimental method to astronomy
§ Made a telescope
§ Discovered moons of Jupiter
· Jupiter isn’t a crystal sphere
§ New evidence for Copernican theory
· No longer should one rely on established authority
· New method of learning and investigating was being
developed, for all fields of inquiry
· Holy Office put works of Copernicus and his supporters
on a list of banned Catholic books
· Thought heliocentric world was foolish and absurd
· Galileo was a devout Catholic who believed his
theories did not detract from the perfection of God
· Silenced his beliefs until he was hope in Pope Urban
VIII
· Galileo’s work lampooned traditional view of Aristotle
and Ptolemy and defended those of Copernicus
· Galileo was tried for heresy and imprisoned
· Both Kepler and Galileo went through personal hardship
by religious persecution
Newton’s Synthesis
· By 1640 the works of Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo had
been largely accepted by the scientific community
· Old Aristotelian astronomy and physics were in ruins
· Breakthroughs were made
· New findings failed to explain what forces controlled
the movement of the planets and objects on earth
· Newton
o Lower English gentry
o United experimental and theoretical-mathematical sides
of modern science
o Fascinated by alchemy
o Intensely religious
o Far from being the perfect rationalist (like Kepler)
o Claimed to have discovered universal gravitation as
well as centripetal force and acceleration
o Did not publish his findings
o Took up study of optics
o Outlined his method of scientific inquiry that
explained the need for scientists to enquire diligently and experiment, then
hypothesize
o Wrote 2 books
o Law of universal gravitation: Everybody in the
universe attracts every other body in the universe in a precise mathematical
relationship, whereby the force of attraction is proportional to the quantity
of matter of the objects and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them
§ Whole universe unified in one coherent system
o Von Leibniz was outraged by Newton’s claim that
gravity affected other things far away
o Newton’s religion helped him dismiss criticism
· Newton’s synthesis of math with physics and astronomy
prevailed
Bacon, Descartes, and the
Scientific Method
· Creation of new science included scholars in many
fields who sought answers
· Development of better ways of obtaining knowledge
· Bacon
o Greatest early propagandist for new experimental
method
o Rejected Aristotelian and medieval method of using
speculative reasoning to build general theories
o New knowledge had to by pursued through empirical
research
§ If you want to learn more about leaves, go out and
research leaves, don’t speculate
§ Collect a multitude of objects and compare them to get
general principles
§ Formalized empirical method (already used by Brahe and
Galileo)
§ Empiricism: Widespread adoption of “experimental
philosophy”
· Descartes
o First great discovery in mathematics
o Solder in 30YW
o Saw there was a perfect correspondence between
geometry and algebra and geometric spatial figures could be expressed as
algebraic equations and vice versa
o Used math to elaborate vision of workings of cosmos
o Investigate basic nature of matter
o Developed idea that matter was made up of identical “corpuscules”
that collided together in an endless series of motions
o All occurrences in nature could be analyzed as matter
in motion
o Total “quantity of motion” in the universe was
constant
o Mechanistic view of the universe
o Thought vacuum was impossible, so every action had an
equal reaction, continuing in an eternal chain reaction
o Notion of mechanistic universe intelligible through
the physics of motion was influential
o Newton rejected Descartes’s idea of a full universe
and several of his other ideas, but retained notion of mechanistic universe
o Greatest achievement: Developed initial vision into a
whole philosophy of knowledge and science
o Necessary to doubt the senses and everything that
could be reasonably doubted
o Use deductive reasoning to ascertain scientific laws
o Reduced all substances to “matter” and “mind” or
physical and spiritual
o Devout – believed God had endowed man with reason for
a purpose and that rational speculation could prove a path to the truths of
creation
o Cartesian dualism: the world has 2 fundamental
entities
o Highly influential in France and Netherlands, but not
in England where experimental philosophy prevailed
· Bacon’s inductive experimentalism and Descartes’s
deductive mathematical reasoning had their faults
o Bacon’s inability to appreciate importance of math
o Obsession with practical results
o Descartes’s thought it was sometimes possible to
deduce the whole science of medicine from first principles
· Bacon and Descartes’s extreme approaches are combined
into the modern scientific method
Science and Society
· Rise of modern science consequences
o Hand in hand with rise of new and expanding social
group: the international scientific community
o Members were linked together by common interests and
shared values
o Journals and learned scientific societies
o Science became competitive to find new discoveries
· Governments intervened to support and direct research,
and new scientific community became closely tied to the state
o National academies of science
o Scientists developed a critical attitude towards
established authority à inspired thinkers to question traditions in other domains
· Some things did not change
o Representations of femininity and masculinity in SR
§ Nature was often depicted as female whose veil needed
to be stripped off by male experts
§ New “rational” methods for approaching nature did not
question traditional inequalities between the sexes, may have worsened them
§ Rise of professional scientific community raised
barriers for women because new academies didn’t accept women
· Exceptions, and what women could do
o In Italy, some universities offered posts to women
o Women across Europe could work as makers of wax
anatomical models and botanical and zoological illustrators
o Involved in informal scientific communities, attending
salons, participating in experiments, writing treatises
· Some female intellectuals were recognized as members
of philosophical dialogue
o Margaret
Cavendish
§ Contributed to debates about mind body dualism and
other issues
o Descartes talked with a woman intellectually – puts
her opinions above doctors’ opinions
· Consequences for economic life and living standards of
the masses
o Improvements in techniques of navigation facilitated
overseas trade and helped enrich states/merchant companies
o Science had relatively few practical economic
applications
o SR was first and foremost an intellectual revolution
o Greatest impact was how people thought and believed
· Role of religion
o Protestantism was a fundamental factor in the rise of
modern science
o Particularly Calvinism, made scientific inquiry a
question of individual conscience, not religious doctrine
o Catholic Church supposedly suppressed scientific
theories that conflicted with teachings and discouraged scientific progress
o Truth: all Western religious authorities opposed the
Copernican system to a greater or lesser extent until about 1630
o Catholic church was initially less hostile – Italian
scientists
o Counter-Reformation church was more hostile – decline
of science in Italy
o Protestant counties became “pro-science,” especially
those that lacked strong religious authority
· Protestant England
o English religious conflicts became so intense that
authorities could not impose religious unity on anything, including science
o Bacon’s many follower’s work helped solidify
independence of science
o Bacon advocated experimental approach because it was
open minded and independent of preconceived religious and philosophical ideas
o Neutral and useful, science became an accepted part of
life and developed rapidly in England
Medicine, the Body, and
Chemistry
· SR revolving around cosmos, inspired study of
microcosm of human body
· Galen
o Greek physician
o Had same authority of Aristotle’s account of the universe
o Body contained four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile,
yellow bile
o Illness came from imbalance of humors
· Paracelsus
o Early proponent of experimental method in medicine
o Pioneered use of chemicals and drugs to address what
he saw as chemical imbalances
· Vesalius
o Experimentalists
o Studied human bodies by dissecting them
o Issued his book of drawings of human anatomy
· William Harvey
o Circulation of blood through veins and arteries
o Explained heart worked like a pump
o Function of muscles and valves
· Robert Boyle
o Founded modern science of chemistry
o Under took experiments to discover basic elements of nature
§ Composed of infinitely small atoms
o First to create a vacuum, disproved Descartes
o Discovered Boyle’s law
§ Pressure inversely related with volume
The ENLT
· SR caused new worldview called ENLT
o Grew out of a rich mix of diverse and often
conflicting ideas
o The writers who advocates these ideas competed for
attention of a growing public of well educated, fickle readers (minority)
· Three central concepts of ENLT thinking
o Methods of natural science could and should be used to
examine and understand all aspects of life
§ Reason
§ Nothing accepted on faith
§ Everything submitted to rationalism
o The scientific method was capable of discovering the
laws of human society as well as nature
§ Social science
o Progress
§ Armed with proper method of learning human laws of
existence, it was possible for human beings to create better societies and
better people
The Emergence of the ENLT
· Loosely united by certain key ideas
· Broad intellectual and cultural movement that
gradually gained strength
· Came to age between Principia in 1687 to Louis XIV’s
death 1715 tied knot between SR and new outlook on life
· Writers popularized hard to understand scientific
achievements for the educated elite
· New generation believed human mind is capable of
making great progress
o Medieval/Reformation focused on abstract sin and
salvation
o REN humanists believed their era went beyond antiquity
o ENLT thinkers thought their era had gone far beyond
antiquity and intellectual progress was very possible
· Scientific Rev led to doubt and uncertainty and a
crisis
o People asked whether ideological conformity in
religious matters was really necessary
o Asked f religious truth was always absolute
o Concluded it was not absolute
o New development, Catholic and Protestant scientists
believed their work exalted God and helped explain creation
· Pierre Bayle
o Despised Louis XIV
o Found refuge in Netherlands
o Critically examined religious beliefs and persecutions
of the past
o Human beliefs had been extremely varied and often
mistaken
o Nothing can ever be known beyond all doubt: skepticism
· Early ENLT philosophers became interested in Judaism
o Jews à defined what true religion should be like
· Baruch
Spinoza
o Excommunicated by Jewish community for controversial
religious ideas
o Believed that mind and body are united in one
substance
o God and nature were two names for the same thing
o Deterministic universe where good and evil were merely
relative values
o Among the most original thinkers of early ENLT
· Rapidly growing travel literature outside of Europe
caused questioning among thinkers
o Learning that peoples of other countries had their own
beliefs and customs
o Changed perspective of educated Europeans
o Began to look at truth and morality in relative,
rather than absolute terms
o Anything is possible, who can say what is right or
wrong?
· John Locke
o First major text of the ENLT
o New theory about how human beings learn and form ideas
o Locke insisted that all ideas are derived from
experience
o Human mind at birth is like a blank tablet, tabula
rasa, which environment writes the individual’s understanding and beliefs
o Human development is determined by education and
social institutions for good or evil
o Sensationalism: All human ideas and thoughts are
produced as a result of sensory impressions
o Systematic justification of Bacon’s emphasis on the
importance of observation and experimentation
o One of the many dominant intellectual inspirations of
the ENLT
The Influence of the
Philosophes
· Christian Europe still strongly attached to its
established political and social structures and traditional spiritual beliefs
o By 1775: Large portion of w Europe’s educated elite
had embraced many of the new ideas
· Acceptance was due to philosophes
· Philosophes: Group of influential intellectuals who
proudly proclaimed that they were bringing the light of knowledge to their
ignorant fellow creatures
· In France, ENLT reached apogee
· Reasons
o French was international language of educated classes
o France was still wealthiest and most populous country
in Europe
o Intellectuals were not as strongly restrained as other
intellectuals in other e European states
o French philosophes made it their goal to reach a
larger audience of elites, many of whom were joined together in “republic of
letters”
§ Transnational realm of the well-educated
· Circulated most radical works in manuscript form to not
anger the church
· To appeal to public and get around censors, they wrote
novels and plays, etc. filled with satire and double meanings to spread message
· Baron de
Montesquieu
o Plays with social satire
§ Amusing letters written by Usbek and Rica
§ Outsiders who have a diff perspective on European
customs
§ Able to criticize existing practices and beliefs
§ Used wit as a weapon against cruelty and superstition
o Saw relations between men and women highly
representative of overall social and political system
§ Oppression of women: Eastern tyranny
§ Cruel eunuchs: Despotism must fail
§ Female power behind throne: Women gain indirect power
by influencing absolutist kings/men
o Disturbed by growth in royal absolutism under Louis
XIV
§ Inspired by physical sciences – set out to apply
critical method to problem of governments
§ Comparative study of republics, monarchies, despotisms
§ Forms of gov were shaped by history, geography, and
customs
§ Focused on conditions that would promote liberty and
prevent tyranny
o Separation of powers
§ Political power divided and shared by variety of
classes and legal estates holding unequal rights/privileges
§ Believed French and 13 high courts (parlements) were
frontline defenders of liberty against royal despotism
o Apprehensive about uneducated poor
§ No democrat
· Voltaire
o Wrote witty volumes
o Good at business
o Early career was turbulent – arrested for insulting
noblemen
o Moved to England to avoid longer prison term in France
o Shared enthusiasm for English liberties and
institutions
o Met Madame du
Chatalet
§ Gifted woman from high aristocracy with passion for
science
§ Invited Voltaire to live in her house
§ Studied physics and mathematics
§ Published scientific articles and translations
(Newton’s Principia)
§ Excluded from Royal Academy of Sciences because she
was a woman
§ Thought women’s limited role in science was due to
unequal education
o Praised England and popularized English scientific
progress
o Thought Newton was history’s greatest man
§ Used his genius for the benefit of humanity
o Mixed glorification of science and reason with an
appeal for better individuals and institutions
o Reformer, not revolutionary
o Concluded best of governments was a good monarch
because humans are rarely worthy to govern themselves
§ Praised Louis XIV
§ Correspondence with Frederick the Great
o Thought servants should be under masters
o Only equality was when citizens depend on laws to protect
freedom
o Challenged Catholic church and Christian theology
§ Believed in God, but a distant, deistic God
§ Envisioned a mechanistic universe in which God acted
like a great clockmaker who built an orderly system and stepped aside to let it
run
§ Hated all forms of religious intolerance
§ Simple piety and kindness was enough
· Ultimate strength of philosophes lay in their number,
dedication, and organization
o Thought they were engaged in a common undertaking that
transcended individuals
· Their greatest intellectual achievement was a group
effort: the Encyclopedia
o Denis
Diderot and jean le Rond d’Alembert
o Set out to find coauthors who would examine the
rapidly expanding whole of human knowledge
o Teach people how to think critically and objectively
· Encyclopedia
o Encyclopedia survived initial resistance from French
gov. and Catholic Church
o 72,000 articles by leading scientists, writers,
skilled workers, and progressive priests
o Treated every aspect of life and knowledge
o Overall effect was little short of revolutionary
o Science and industrial arts were exalted
o Religion and immorality questioned
o Intolerance, legal injustice, out of date social
institutions were openly criticized
o Convinced that greater knowledge would result in
greater human happiness
o Knowledge was useful and made possible economic,
social, political progress
o Summed up worldview of ENLT
o Widely read
o Extremely influential
The Enlightenment Outside of
France
· Different areas developed diff forms of ENLT thinking
o England and Germany – more conservative, tried to integrate
SCIREV with religious faith
o Scotland free from political crisis to experience
vigorous period of intellectual growth
§ Scottish ENLT marked by emphasis on pragmatic and
scientific reasoning
§ Intellectual revival stimulated by creation of first
public educational system in Europe
· David Hume
o Argued religious skepticism
o Powerful impact at home (Scotland)
o Built on Locke’s teachings on learning
o Argued human mind is really nothing but a bundle of
impressions
o Impressions originate only in sense experiences and
our habits of joining these experiences together
o Reason can’t tell us anything about questions that
can’t be verified by sense experience because our ideas reflect our sense
experiments, such as origin of universe or existence of God
o Rationalistic inquiry undermined ENLT’s faith in power
of reason
Urban Culture and Life in the
Public Sphere
· New institutions and practices encouraged spread of
ENLT ideas
o European production and consumption of books grew
significantly
o Types of books people read changed dramatically
§ More art and science books
· Educated public in France and throughout Europe
approached reading in a new way
o Reading revolution: Transition in Europe from a
society where literacy was mostly patriarchal and communal reading of religious
texts to a society where literacy was commonplace and reading was more broad
o Old style of reading was centered on sacred texts read
by patriarch and communal with father reading text aloud to audience
o Reading was a broader field of books
o Reading became individual and silent
o Texts could be questioned
o Ushered in new ways of relating to written word
· Conversation, discussion, and debate played a critical
role
o Paris set example, other cities followed
o Talented, wealthy women presided over regular social
gatherings in salons
o Encouraged exchange of witty, uncensored observations
on literature, science, and philosophy with aristocrats, wealthy middle class,
high ranking officials, noteworthy foreigners
o Hostesses, or salonnieres, mediated public’s
freewheeling examination of ENLT thought
· Salons created cultural realm free from religious
dogma and political censorship
o Diverse but educated public could debate on issues and
form new ideas
o Brought together members of intellectual, economic,
and social elites
o Philosophes, French nobility, prosperous middle class
intermingled and influenced one another
o Thought critically about almost any question
o Hopes for human progress through greater knowledge and
enlightened public opinions
· Elite women exercised great influence on aristocratic taste
o Soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits,
starry eyed lovers: Rococo
§ Popular throughout Europe
· Feminine influence in the drawing room went together
with emergence of polite society and general attempt to civilize a rough
military nobility
o Some philosophes championed greater rights and
expanded education for women, claiming that the position and treatment of women
were the best indication of a society’s level of civilization
o Greater rights did not mean equal rights
§ Women remained legally subordinate to men
o Elite women still lacked many rights
· Number of institutions emerged for rest of society
(besides those at salons)
o Lending libraries: people who could not afford their
won books
o Coffeehouses: meccas of philosophical discussion
o Book clubs, Masonic, lodges, journals
· New public sphere: celebrated open debate informed by
critical reason
o Public sphere: Idealized intellectual space that
emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment, where the public came together to
discuss important issues relating to society, economics, and politics
o Idealized space where members of society came together
as individuals to discuss issues relevant to society, economics, and politics
of the day
· Common people
o ENLT philosophes did not direct their message to
peasants or urban laborers
o Masses had no time or talent for philosophical
speculation
o Elevating masses would be long, slow, and potentially
dangerous
o They thought people were like little children in need
of firm parental guidance
· People were not immune to words of philosophes
o Book prices were dropping and many ideas were
popularized in cheap pamphlets
o Illiterate people learned through public reading
o Barred from salons and academies, not immune to new
circulation
Race and the Enlightenment
· ENLT and SCIREV crucial turning point in European
ideas about race
o Urge to classify nature unleashed by SCIREV’s
insistence on empirical observation
· Carl von
Linne
o Nature organized into God-given hierarchy
o Elaborate taxonomies
o Classify humans into hierarchically ordered “races”
o Investigated origins of race
· Compte de
Buffon
o Humans originated with one species that developed into
distinct races due to climactic conditions
· David Hume
and Immanuel Kant
o Popularized these ideas
o Hume thought negroes were naturally inferior to whites
– thought nature made it that way
o Kant claimed there were 4 human races, each which
derived from original race of “white brunette” people
§ Closest descendents of originals race were white
inhabitants of N. Germany
§ Other races degenerated both culturally and physically
from this origin
· Using word “race” for biologically distinct group of
humans was new
o Europeans grouped other peoples into nations based on
historical, political, cultural affiliations, not innate physical differences
· Europeans’ races put on top
o Thought they were culturally, and now biologically
superior
· Scientific racism helped legitimate and justify
tremendous growth of slavery
o If one race of humans was different and inferior, its
members could be seen as fit for enslavement
· Racist ideas did not go unchallenged
o Diderot had a scathing critique of European arrogance
and exploitation
o James
Beattie: pointed out that Europeans
had started out as savage as nonwhites, and many non-European societies were
highly civilized
o Gottfried
von Herder: Criticized Kant, saying
humans couldn’t be classified based on skin color and each cultue was as worthy
as any other
· Challenges to ideas of racial inequality were the
minority, many ENLT ppl agreed with Kant and Hume
· Clear parallels between use of science to propagate
racial hierarchies and its use to defend social inequalities between men and
women
· Rousseau
o Women’s natural passivity meant they were naturally
inferior
· Science and reason were combined to create traditional
stereotypes with force of natural law
Late Enlightenment
· Thinkers and writers began to attack ENLT’s faith in
reason, progress, and moderation
· Rousseau
o Son of poor watchmaker who made his way through
brilliant intellect
o Believed his philosophe friends and women of Parisian
salons were plotting against him
§ Broke with them and lived with an uneducated
common-law wife and went in his own direction
o Committed to individual ffreedom
o Attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying
o Warm, spontaneous feeling complemented and corrected
cold intellect
o Basic goodness of individual had to be protected from
cruel refinements of civilization
o Called for rigid division of gender roles
§ Wom men were radically different
§ Destined by nature to assume a passive role in sexual
relations, women should also be passive in social life
§ Women loved displaying themselves, attending salons,
and pulling strings of power – this was unnatural and corrupted politics and
society
§ Rejected life of elite Parisian women
§ Wanted privileged women to renounce their frivolous
ways and stay at home to care for children
o General Will and popular sovereignty
§ General will
· Sacred and absolute, reflected common interests of all
people, who have made the monarch their sovereign leader
· Not necessarily will of majority
· Long term needs of people as interpreted by farseeing
minority
o One of the most influential ENLT thinkers
o Harbinger for ENLT rejection
· Reading public joined forces with philosophes to call
for autonomy of printed word
· Kant
o Professor
o Posed question of age – what is Enlightenment?
o Have courage to use your own understanding
o If serious thinkers were granted freedom to exercise
reason publicly in print, ENLT would surely follow
o Insisted that in private lives, indivduals must obey
all laws, no matter how unreasonable
o Should be punished for impertinent criticism
o Tried to reconcile absolute monarchial authority with
critical public sphere
§ Enlightened absolutism
Enlightened Absolutism
· Most ENLT Thinkers outside of England and the
Netherlands thought political change could best come from above (the ruler)
rather than below
· Royal absolutism was a fact of life, and the kings and
queens of Europe had no intention of giving up their great power
· Philosophes and their sympathizers realistically
concluded that a benevolent absolutism offered the best opportunities for
improving society
· Many government officials were interested in
philosophical ideas
o Among best educated members of society
o Daily involvement of affairs of the state
o Attracted to ideas for improving human society
· Monarchs were encouraged and instructed by these
officials
· Because monarchs were influenced by these officials,
some absolutist rulers tried to reform their governments in accordance with ENLT
ideals – Enlightened Absolutism
o Rule of 18th century monarchs who adopted ENLT
ideals of rationalism, progress, and tolerance without renouncing their own
absolute authority
· Most influential of new style monarchs were in
Prussia, Russia, and Austria
· Achievements and limitations of enlightened absolutism
Frederick the Great of
Prussia
· Frederick II or Frederick the Great built on his the
work of his father, Frederick William I
· Though he embraced culture and literature as a youth,
he was determined to use the splendid army that his father left him
· Frederick pounced when young Maria Theresa of Austria
inherited the Habsburg dominions when Charles VI died
· Invaded her rich, mainly German province of Silesia,
defying Prussian promises to respect the Pragmatic Sanction, a diplomatic
agreement that guaranteed Maria Theresa’s succession
· Other powers vied for her lands in European War of the
Austrian Succession
· Maria Theresa was forced to cede almost all of Silesia
to Prussia
· Prussia doubled its population
· Prussia unquestionably towered above all the other
German states and stood as a European Great Power
· Frederick had to fight against odds to save Prussia
from total destruction after the competition between Britain and France for
colonial empire brought another great conflict
· Maria Theresa sought to regain Silesia and formed an
alliance with leaders of France and Russia
· Aim of alliance during 7 years war was to conquer
Prussia and divide up its territory
· Frederick, despite invasions from all sides fought on
with stoic courage
· Frederick was saved by Peter III who came to the
Russian throne and called off the attack against Frederick, whom he greatly
admired
· 7YW tempered Frederick’s interest in territorial
expansion and brought him to consider how more humane policies for his subjects
might strengthen his state
o Allowed his subjects to believe as they wished in religious
and philosophical matters
o Promoted advancement of knowledge, improving his
country’s schools and permitting scholars to publish their findings
o Tried to improve the lives of his subjects more
directly
· Legal system and bureaucracy were Frederick’s primary
tools
o Prussia’s laws simplified
o Torture abolished
o Judges decided cases quickly and impartially
o Prussian officials became famous for hard work and
honesty
o Frederick’s government energetically promoted the
reconstruction of agriculture and industry
o Frederick worked hard and lived modestly – a good
model
o Justified monarchy in terms of practical results and
said nothing of the divine right of kings
· Condemned serfdom in the abstract, accepted it in
practice and did not free serfs in his own estates
· Accepted and extended the privileges of the nobility
who were the backbone of the army and entire Prussian state
· To reform Prussia’s bureaucracy, Frederick drew on the
principal of cameralism, the German science of public administration that
emerged after 30YW
o Monarchy was the best of all forms of government
o All elements of society should be placed at the service of the state, in turn
the state should make use of its resources and authority to improve society
o Before the ENLT, Usually inspired by the needs of war
o Cameralism shared with ENLT an emphasis on
rationality, progress, and utilitarianism
Catherine the Great of Russia
· German princess from Anhalt-Zerbst, a principality
between Prussia and Saxony
· Father commanded regiment of Prussian army, mother was
related to the Romanovs of Russia
· Bride to heir of Russian throne made possible by her
blood relation
· Mismatch from the beginning
o I did not care about Peter, but I did care about the
crown
· Husband Peter III decided to withdraw Russian troops
which alienated the army
· Catherine used his unpopularity formed a conspiracy to
kill her husband with her lover Gregory Orlov
· Catherine became empress of Russia
o Never questioned that absolute monarchy was the best
form of government
o Set out to rule in an enlightened manner – was hugely
influenced by the ENLT thinking
o 3 main goals
§ Continue Peter the Great’s effort to bring he culture
of Western Europe to Russia
· Imported Western architects, sculptors, musicians,
intellectuals
· Masterpieces of Western art and patronized the philosophes
· Praised Voltaire
· Didn’t ban Encyclopedia when French gov did
· Sent money to Diderot
· Won good press in the West for herself and for her
country
· Set the tone for Russian nobility
· Catherine westernized the imagination of the Russian
nobility
§ Domestic reform
· Sincere and ambitious projects
· Appointed special legislative commission to prepare a
new law code
· Never completed
· Restricted torture
· Allowed limited religious toleration
· Tried to improve education and strengthen local
government
· Philosophes applauded these measures
· Cossack Emelian Pugachev sparked gigantic uprising of
serfs
o Proclaimed himself true tsar
o Issued orders abolishing serfdom, taxes, and army
service
o Thousands joined his cause, slaughtering landlords and
officials over a vast area of southwestern Russia
o No match for Catherine’s noble-led army
o Pugachev was betrayed, caught, and executed
· Pugachev’s rebellion put an end to any intentions
Catherine might have had about reforming the system
o Peasants were clearly dangerous
o Her empire rested on support of the nobility
o Gave nobles absolute control of their serfs
o Extended serfdom into new areas, such as Ukraine
o Formalized the nobility’s privileged position, freeing
nobles from taxes and state service
o Russian nobility attained its most exalted position,
and serfdom entered its most oppressive phase
· Territorial expansion
o Armies subjugated last descendants of Mongols and
Crimean Tartars
o Began conquest of Caucasus
o Partition of Poland
o Victory against Turks and thereby threatened to
disturb the balance of power between Russian and Austria in e. Europe
o Frederick of Prussia came up with a deal
o Proposed that Turkey be let off easily and that
Prussia, Austria, and Russia each compensate itself by taking a gigantic slice
of weakly ruled Poland
o Catherine jumped at the chance
o Poland vanished from map
The Austrian Habsburgs
· Maria Theresa set out to reform her nation, although
traditional power politics was a more important motivation than ENLT teachers
· Devout mother and wife inherited power from her father,
Charles VI
· Remarkable, old fashioned absolutist
· Radical son, Joseph II drew on ENLT ideals, earning
title “revolutionary emperor”
· Emerged from long War of the Austrian Succession with
loss of Silesia, Maria Theresa was determined to introduce reform that would
make the state stronger and more efficient
· Limited papacy’s political influence
· Administrative reforms
o Strengthened central bureaucracy
o Smoothed out provincial differences
o Revamped tax system
o Took lands of nobles, previously exempt from taxation
· Gov sought to improve lot of agricultural population,
reducing power of lord over their hereditary serfs and partially free peasant
tenants
· Coregent with his mother and a strong supporter of
change
· Joseph II moved forward rapidly when he came to the throne
· Abolished serfdom
· Decreed that peasants could pay landlords in cash
rather than through compulsory labor
· Violently rejected by nobles and peasants, who lacked
cash
· Joseph died prematurely
· Entire Habsburg empire was in turmoil
· Brother Leopold II canceled Joseph’s radical edicts to
reestablish order
o Peasants were required to do forced lab
· Joseph II and the other eastern European absolutists
of the later 18th century combined old fashioned state building with
the culture and critical thinking of the ENLT
· Succeeded in expanding the role of the state in the
life of society
· Perfected bureaucratic machines that were to prove
surprisingly adaptive and capable of enduring into the 20th century
· Failure to implement policies (abolishing serfdom) may
reveal inherent limitations of the ENLT thinking about equality and social
justice, rather than in their execution of ENLT programs
· Leading philosophes supported rather than criticized
eastern rulers’ policies suggests some of the blinders of the era
Jewish Life and the Limits of
Enlightened Absolutism
· Europe’s small Jewish population lived under highly
discriminatory laws
· Confined to tiny, overcrowded ghettos
· Excluded from most professions, activities, could be
ordered out of kingdom
· Some did succeed to obtain right of permanent
settlement
o Performed special service to state
· Many rulers relied on Jewish bankers for loans to
raise armies and Jewish merchants and traders were prominent in international
trade
· 18th c: ENLT movement emerged: Haskalah
within European Jewish community led by Prussian philosopher Moses Mendelssohn
· Christian and Jewish began to advocate for freedom and
civil rights for European Jews
· Reason, tolerance, universality
· Argued restrictions on religious grounds could not
stand
· Accompanied with controversial social change within
Jewish communities, where rabbinic controls loosened and heightened interaction
with Christians took place
· British Parliament passed law allowing naturalization
of Jews
o Later repealed from public outrage
· Joseph II
o Integrate Jews more fully into society
o Eligibility for military service, removal of special
emblems making them stand out
o Reforms welcomed by many Jews, raised fears among
traditionalists of assimilation into general population
· Monarchs refused to accept idea of emancipation
o Frederick the Great opposed emancipation for Jews and
serfs, but permitted freedom of religion to his Christian subjects
o Catherine the Great refused to emancipate Jews from
the territory she gained from Poland
§ Pale of Settlement, where Jews were required to live
· First to remove all restrictions of Jews was France
under French Revolution
· Jews gradually won full legal and civil rights
throughout the rest of western Europe
· Emancipation in Eastern Europe took longer and aroused
more conflict and violence
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